


The Red Maple

by PinkLady80



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, Auston is a hockey player, F/F, Rule63!Auston, Rule63!Mitch, Witchy!Mitchy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 12:24:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20675354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkLady80/pseuds/PinkLady80
Summary: An inverted 5+1 in which Auston Matthews feels a little like the prince with the glass slipper after she flips a puck to a pretty woman.





	The Red Maple

Auston’s fingers are tight on the steering-wheel as she stares out her windshield. The Red Maple is set back from the street, hidden by its larger neighbors. The door is framed by a mass of blooming flowers and there’s a cat sitting in one of the second-story windows.

She can just see the plaque next to the door, designating this as a magical shop. She’s still not used to the bureaucracy that oversees magic in Canada. The first time she had seen the inspectors in their boxy, red robes, she had been so distracted that she had almost walked in front of a moving car. Mo had saved her, from the car and embarrassment, yanking hard on her hoodie.

Magic in Arizona is different, sinking into the hot sand and permeating old stucco. It’s a force of nature, like the relentless summer sun or a sudden downpour that floods the gullies and dirt roads.

But some things about magic are the same, regardless of where a person is. Witching magic is a powerful force that searches for compatible partners for its wielders. Witches here call it being Found, but some people say it’s a soulmate. 

Mama’s parents are soulmates and Auston loves to hear her grandpa tell the story of how he knew her grandma was the woman for him. She doesn’t think that getting a headcold in the middle of summer is very romantic, but if that’s your sign, Auston can’t judge.

She couldn’t say what made her stop that evening, but she had knocked the glass in front of a pretty woman before sending the puck over the top. She normally gives pucks to the little girls standing around, not women with attractive blue eyes.

Auston had thought this impulsive interaction would be a one-off but it wasn’t. After a while, she had started to feel a little like the prince with the glass slipper, knowing this woman is out there but not having any idea where to start looking.

If Mama hadn’t wanted to go to the flower show, Auston might still be wondering. If Auston hadn’t asked to sit a few minutes and drink her lemonade, she would have missed her. For a few irrational seconds, Auston had hated the large, tilted hat that hid her profile but so grateful to Mama for keeping her events booklet. 

Her mystery woman has a name, Mitch. Mitch also has a list of awards, recognitions, and club memberships as long as Auston’s arm. She had no idea flowers and plants were such a big deal.

Auston had barely been able to listen to what Mama was saying, distracted by how Mitch nodded along with what the kids and how the frothy skirt of her dress swirled around her legs.

She had wanted to stay, to say hello like she hadn’t been able to in the past. Unfortunately, Dad had called, asking them to pick up some fever reducer for Brey and they had left immediately. Auston’s only comfort was she now knew the name of Mitch’s shop and had a few days of rest before the start of the post-season.

When Auston returns to the present, the cat is gone. Maybe this is a sign to go in?

When she pushes the door open, a heavy chime sounds and the cat is sitting by the door. It weaves itself around her before putting feather-light paws on her knees. The collar tag reads ‘Regulus’.

The shop is warm and smells like green things. Young trees in huge plastic tubs line one wall while refrigerators line the other and potted plants and herbs of every size, shape, and color take up floor space.

The cat abandons her as a door somewhere in the shop makes a slapping sound as it closes and suddenly Auston is face to face with the woman she’s wanted to talk to since that game. With Mitch. She doesn’t know what to say, so she holds her hand out, palm up. 

For a second, Mitch just stares but suddenly she’s moving, laying the pads of her fingers against Auston’s, lining up their fingers and lacing them together. Her hand is small but she holds onto Auston like a vice. She grabs the lapels of Auston’s jacket, reeling herself in. Auston wants to wrap both arms around her but isn’t willing to let go of her hand; instead she wraps her free arm around Mitch’s waist, keeping her close. She’s the perfect size for hugging.

Mitch pulls in a watery breath and her body sags on the exhale as Auston rests her cheek against the top of her head.

This must be what Happily Ever After feels like.

—

Mitch loves the Toronto Flower Show. Floral-design competitions allow botanical witches to showcase their some of their non-magical skills and she’s proud to show off The Red Maple and Toronto to all her out-of-town friends.

She still holds the record for most design wins in the Junior League and she’s been judging the youngest contestants, ages 5, 6, and 7, since her return from BC. The little ones are always proud of their entry, whether it’s a single flower in a pot or their first attempt at an arrangement in a vase.

Mitch loves talking to young witches, the ones still in awe of their gifts. The out-going ones can’t wait to showoff what they’ve entered, while the more reserved sometimes need a little help. Would they introduce Mitch to their plant? Can they tell her a little about how they came up with their idea?

There are 10 kids in the Age 7 group this year and while they look confident, Mitch can see nervous parents sitting close to the barrier. She dislikes overly-involved parents. A win or loss in a design competition doesn’t reflect a person’s magical ability; a good mentor and supportive environment will go further than a wall full design wins. She goes through this loosing battle every year when some parent takes her biography in the show’s program guide as a rubric to measure their own child against.

She’s listening to an excitable girl named Penelope talk about her arrangement of grasses and pussy-willow, when the heavy pressure behind her sternum returns. She’s out there, somewhere in the audience. Auston Matthews. 

This has to be the magic pulling them together. Why else would they keep running into each other? 

Mitch wants to look around but can’t, the round hasn’t been completed. Her thoughts sour in frustration. Maybe if parents don’t swarm her later, they can talk.

She makes one last loop of the floor before presenting certificates to the top three. She thanks all the kids for entering their work and hopes to see them in the Age 8 group next year.

Claude, who is judging the next three rounds, waives at her to wait while trying to escape the clutches of the CBC. TV cameras love him because he’s handsome and his Bayview Village shop does arrangements and weddings for Toronto’s richest residents.

Mitch has just said hello to last year’s Age 7 winner when she notices Auston sitting near the top of the spectator seating, her head tilted towards an older woman who must be her mother. She’s also staring at Mitch. 

Mitch feels like her feet are bolted to the ground and she wants to run her hands over her dress, to smooth out any invisible wrinkles, but she doesn’t. Inexplicably, The Toronto Flower show still expects its judges to wear hats, it’s a silly rule because even the Queen doesn’t always wear a hat to the Chelsea Flower Show, and Mitch knows her low-profile creation is an attractive choice. It also allows her to hide behind it, because in a room packed with people, she feels suddenly vulnerable. 

She doesn’t know how long she stands there, chatting with the MC and feeling her excitement build, but she isn’t expecting Claude when he steps up next to her. She compliments him on his own hat, wishes him good luck with the parents and escapes the ring.

People are waiting for her just outside the curtain, the dad of her second-place finisher seems exceptionally distraught, and by the time they let her go, Auston is gone. Something shatters inside her, pain spiking; Mitch feels sick. Maybe all this time, she’s been wrong. Maybe Auston isn’t supposed to Find her and this has all been a terrible coincidence. 

For the first time, her magic doesn’t offer comfort, instead it mocks her cruelly. Mitch feels like something beautiful is being dangled in front of her nose, only to have it yanked away as she reaches out. She digs her nails into her palms and blinks up at ceiling, swallowing hard and trying to stop her eyes from tearing up.

Her phone pings. Yazmeen and Arvind are waiting for her in the tea room. She needs their uncomplicated support.

—

Being a witch is not like “Harry Potter”. There’s no special school and in Canada most parts of the magical community doesn’t feel the need to hide.

Mitch can’t remember Waking Up. She’d been very young, just three, but Mom and Dad have a video of her causing a rose to grow, bloom, and die back in the middle of November. 

There is also the picture of her hiding behind Dad when her parents had taken her to the Ontario Ministry of Magical Affairs and a junior minister tried to give her a balloon. Chris is in the background raiding the dessert tray and shoving an entire cupcake in his mouth.

Mitch can’t remember a time when Mom and Dad were anything other than proud. Pictures of her accomplishments still hang in places of honor next to Chris’ and Dad had almost cried when they had dropped her off at UBC for the first time. He did cry four years later at her graduation and Yazmeen and Mom had both run out of Kleenex. 

Mom always has the best gardens in their neighborhood and Mitch loves the long winter afternoons the two of them spend together mapping them out, while some HGTV host drones away in the background (Mitch doesn’t like the witches who crowd the internet and TV with their generic advice. Witching is supposed to be personal to whomever looks for the witch and throwing out unrealistic platitudes cheapens everyones’ work.).

If there is one thing that makes Mitch different from the rest of her family, it’s that winter is not her favorite season. She’ll take a hot, sunny day, a cute sundress, and a tube of SPF 50 sunblock over the long, cold, slippery days of winter anytime. The only good things about winter are Christmas and watching hockey. 

Mitch is a proud Torontonian, and she can lace skates well enough and not make an embarrassment of herself by falling down if she’s skating laps. She leaves the playing of hockey to her parents, who are on the same team in a Over-50’s, her sister-in-law’s moms-league, and her 5 year-old nephew.

Teddy is a goalie and seems to have a knack for it. He has fast reflexes for someone so young; Chris says it’s because he’s always throwing himself between anything he thinks might be dangerous and his younger brother. Today Teddy has a clinic, so Mitch shows up to an out-of-the-way rink on a cold Sunday morning to watch him be adorable for two hours.

She finds her family in the stands, the arena is crowded for 9am, adjusting her scarf and pulling on her mittens. Mom takes pity on her, asking if Mitch wants some of her coffee. The rink is chilly but it reminds her of watching Kelsey’s games during their time at UBC.

Mitch spots Teddy in the little group of goalies; they look like a litter of kittens, all a little unstable in their pads and skating around the net on their own. She raises both arms when she sees him look around and he waves back.

She loves him so much.

Mitch is finishing off the sugary dregs of Mom’s coffee and settling baby Gabe into her lap when an excited man announces the special volunteers helping with the clinic and the pressure Mitch now associates with Auston Matthews returns.

Her attention is split between Teddy, who is totally focused on whatever is Fredrick Andersen saying, preventing grabby-hands Gabe from destroying her scarf, and trying not to watch Auston teach the skaters to belly-flop and slide safely on the ice. 

Mitch will admit she’s not successful. She blames Auston with her height and her shoulders and the way she gets down to the kids’ level when she’s explaining something.

She and Chris wait for Teddy after the clinic wraps, Mom and Dad catching up with some of their league friends here to watch their own grandkids and Andi off to arrange a player carpool with some other parents. Gabe smacks both hands on the glass and Teddy taps his stick on it in front of his brother’s face. Gabe hits the glass again and watching the brothers go back and forth, Mitch wishes she hadn’t put in phone in her purse.

Chris has his hands full with Gabe’s diaper-bag and the gear-bag, so Teddy leans against Mitch on the walk to the parking lot, completely drained after an exciting morning. He’s so tired that when they go by Auston giving an interview in the lobby of the arena, he doesn’t even blink.

Mitch wonders if she’s imagining things when Auston answers the reporter’s question half a beat too late when she notices them.

Maybe it’s not a coincidence. Maybe Auston is supposed to Find her.

—

Mitch knows one of the best things about being a witch is having a mentor, learning the secrets and ways from an older practitioner. The magic matches you and the bonds between mentor and mentee are tight.

Mitch had found her mentor at age five, the first year she had entered the Toronto Flower Show. She had felt a popping, fizzy feeling in her stomach when the judge had appeared at her table, a women dressed in gold with a flower-patterned headscarf who introduced herself as Yazmeen. That afternoon, Mitch had walked away with her first win for her Orchid and the start of amazing relationship. 

There’s only 20 years between them and when Mitch was younger, Yazmeen was like a fun aunt or much older sister. In addition to passing down her knowledge, she had taught Mitch the value of listening. To plants, to the people you love, and the people you’ll meet once in your life. Through her, Mitch learned that being a botany witch means people visit the shop during their soaring highs and their crushing lows. They come in for reasons that make them smile and reasons that bring tears or shame.

Mitch is 25 now but Yazmeen is still her older sister. She had been the first person Mitch told that she wasn’t interested in boys and nursed her though homesickness when Mitch had left home for the University of British Columbia and their highly-regarded Botany program. Her family celebrated birthdays and Canada Day picnics with Mitch’s family, and shared dishes from their native Algeria at Thanksgiving. 

Mom likes to brag that she has three amazing kids.

Yazmeen and Arvind are celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary at BlueBlood with a big family lunch. 

Mitch remembers the day Arvind had first come into The Red Maple. It had been a rainy day and he had wanted some flowers for a friend who was bringing a new baby home from the hospital. He’d walked out with a sapling after Yazmeen had told him that parents can watch the tree and the baby grow up together. When Dad had dropped Mitch off at the shop for her normal 3-hour Saturday shift the next day, Arvind was back.

They were married a year later.

Mitch spends most of lunch catching up with Arvind’s youngest sister, recommending different types of low-maintenance houseplants that can withstand a large dog and holding her 8-week old baby.

Little Vinod is very cute and an excellent sleeper, but his parents still look exhausted so Mitch allows the calming effect of the soft weight against her shoulder and the unique smell universally identified as ‘baby’ to wash over her.

She wants her own babies someday.

Their server has just delivered a cheese platter and coffee when a large group moves through the room and the heaviness from the hockey game suddenly returns. The restaurant is busy and Mitch is pushing down disappointment at not recognizing anyone when a ripple of awareness follows Auston Matthews as she weaves her way through the tables toward the private dining rooms.

Her long coat reminds Mitch of the hard-nosed detectives in noir films who fall for the wrong dame and smoke cigarettes in the rain. Auston catches her staring when she turns around. Mitch knows her face is pink but she salutes Auston with her coffee cup. That gets her a raised eyebrow and a smirk in return.

It’s probably a coincidence.

—

Every year, The Red Maple, and every magical business in Canada, is inspected by the provincial and federal governments. 

It’s a boring, stressful, all-day process that requires the shop to close while the ministries’ inspectors swish around looking for any inconsistencies. Even Mitch’s apartment above the shop gets looked over just in case she does anything illegal in her spare time.

Mitch plans to use the time to work on her presentation to The Garden Club of Toronto and start on the arrangement for her next Ikenobo exam.

The inspectors also drink a mind-numbing amount of coffee and Regulus spends the day hiding on top of the refrigerated cases, ears pressed to his head and eyes narrowed. 

This isn’t Mitch’s first inspection, but it is her first one without Yazmeen and she’s nervous. She knows that everything is above board and up to date, but the provincial inspectors brought on under the current government have a reputation for being difficult and some aren’t magical.

Yazmeen gives Mitch the rest of the day, Fridays are slow after 4pm. She delivers of some of The Red Maple’s extra tulips to The Grounds at Pemberly, whose caretaker is her friend Claude, as they had suddenly run dangerously low, and heads to Sephora. Mom’s birthday is in two weeks and she wants a new bottle of “Alien.”

It looks like half of Toronto’s Most Rich and Beautiful has a date tonight and Mitch makes her way through the crush. She hasn’t had a steady girlfriend since graduation and misses the heart-bearing intimacy of a romantic relationship. 

Kelsey has been playing in Sweden since their graduation. They’d been an odd-couple, the extroverted plant witch and the introverted hockey player. They had met in Biology lab their sophomore year and by Christmas break Mitch was huddled up in The Doug watching her girlfriend be amazing.

No one in Kelsey’s family was magical, but they had made her feel welcome. Her grandma Annie had knitted Mitch a pair of mittens and a scarf in UBC’s colors the next Christmas. Mitch still wears them.

She doesn’t regret the 2.5 years they were together, she’s a better person for it, but the Magic says someone in the world is supposed to Find her. Mitch goes on dates, she enjoys meeting new people too much not to, but it never feels right. She always ends up telling nice women she’s open to being friends but anything more isn’t going to work out.

She has a wonderful family, good friends, and a job brings her tremendous pride and satisfaction, but she’s still a little lonely.

Mitch trusts the magic will do its job. She just irrationally wishes it would work a little faster.

Her phone pings as she’s headed towards the door, and trying to avoid the crush of people coming in, she accidentally backs into someone standing behind her.

Her chest suddenly gets heavy and when she turns around, ready to apologize, there’s Auston Matthews holding a bottle of Givenchy‘s Pi. Mitch loves a woman who has the moxy to wear Pi. She knows it’s designed for men, but it’s sweet and subtle and makes her knees weak.

They stare at each other. Mitch’s phone pings again, shaking her free from some unknown spell. She tells Auston Matthews she’s sorry for running into her and she should definitely buy that cologne because it smells delicious.

Mitch sits in her car, reading her texts. The Red Maple’s attorney will be at the shop for the inspection on the off-chance someone gets combative. Mitch feels the tension drain out of her; Mariah has a legal mind like a bear-trap and a low threshold for fools. Everything will be fine.

Her thoughts return to the Sephora and the funny feeling in her chest. She had the same feeling when Auston flipped her the puck at the game.

It’s strange, but probably doesn’t mean anything. 

—

The Red Maple is dark and still when Mitch resets the alarm. The shop feels like a soporific fairy-woods with the scent of night-blooming flowers heavy in the air and the saplings reduced to deep shadows against the wall. 

Yazmeen had texted to say the delivery from the wholesaler would arrive at 7:00am instead of 9:00 and she programs the shop’s coffee pot for 6:00, reaching around Regulus to pour the beans into the top of the coffeemaker. 

He flicks his tail at her, unimpressed.

She pulls the puck out of her purse; Auston Matthews had flipped it to her during warmups. Mitch and her friends had been up against the glass, sharing cheap beer and witchy gossip, when suddenly Auston had skated to a snowy stop and pointing to Mitch before sending the puck into her hands and turning away.

It was a ten-second encounter but Mitch’s chest had felt like a elephant was sitting on her and it had been difficult to breathe. She’s heard stories of the different signs witches experience when they’re Found: excessive sneezing, fainting, ringing ears, itchy skin. It’s different for every witch. 

Mitch’s friends, unaware of her revaluation, had teased her because The Auston Matthews had given her a puck, but she had ignored their laughter. Toronto is a city with millions of people and thousands of people at the rink. The odds of Auston Matthews being the person who Finds her are astronomically small.

She leaves the souvenir of a good night out with good friends next to the register. She’ll find a home for it tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work of fiction. All mistakes are my own.


End file.
